Maintenance Training

November 28-29, I conducted maintenance training for line maintenance technicians for Temptronic Precision Temperature Forcing System. It is one of our functions to trained newly hired technicians; we do have a training group which conducts mostly of the basic and overview training and maintenance, but in case they are fully loaded or the one assigned to that particular machine is not available, we have to serve as resource person.

The attendees were not new technicians, one of them came from manufacturing as operator and was promoted to technician after finishing a technician course, the other were in their 1 and a half year in the company, but are well experienced from other semicon companies. The other attendee is almost on her seventh year. The machine is not new to them; actually they have been using it for quite some time. They just have to be certified to use this machine, unless they will be audited from setting up machines which they are not certified.

The training mostly on the question and answer, they ask me questions and the parts, or areas that they are confused and I will give them the best answer according to my knowledge (in reference to what I know and the operations manual of the machine).

Overall, the training is good and I hope I delivered the knowledge that they needed in the setting up the machine.

Two major down and meeting an old friend

This morning, I told my supervisor that I will not attend the daily coordination meeting; this is because I read in the e-mails that I have two machines under major down and is currently unattended. We have only one technician on duty last night who is also attending to another equipment under PM and also been called by the manufacturing to attend to some line down. The daily meeting starts at 8:15 and ends at around 9:30, while our technician on duty for today will be reporting at 10:00, so I decided to start working with one of the two machines.

I still feel pressured while doing the repair like the way I used to feel when I was just starting in this kind of work. The only difference then is now is a little bit higher on their expectations. Being considered as an expert on that machine (I myself believe that I still have to learned a lot) or well experienced (I think this is the best term), they will expect that I can release it immediately.

I am already on the fine tuning on one machine when my technician arrived at past 10:00 am. He used to report on phase 2 building, while our major repair is at the phase 1 building. With his help we released one machine at around 1:30 pm. He was also called to attend line down, so I was left again working alone in the other machine. I was about to install a part of the machine when I saw that there were 4 broken screws on the base plate. Luckily we have a spare, but it is almost 3:00 pm, Kuya Aries arrived and reminded me of our TQM meeting (I am a co-leader of the calibration personnel). My technician is not yet around so I grab a pen and paper to write down my findings.

After the meeting I assisted my technician in the repair, again we found another defective part. This time we do not have a spare, so we decided to borrow from another machine. We went to the parking area of idle machine to get the part. In the other room, I saw our old friend Kuya Cesar. He was a service engineer of another type of machine, but now he is working in China – our subcontractor. We had some chat about his work abroad and his family. I had to cut the good conversation with him because; the shuttle bus is leaving at 4:45pm.

Additional tasks

After our daily coordination meeting, my supervisor told me to stay for a while. He told me that he is planning on giving me additional tasks, (tasks – which means not only one). Kuya Wowie will have a three months training on US, he told me that I will handle his job and do his functions while he is away. It was mixed emotions, I am happy because, my supervisor choose me because he believes that I can do it, and a little sad because, with my current load at work, I think I will be overloaded. Right after I learned about that plan, I told my co-engineers about it, they told me that they think it will not be temporarily, because Kuya Wowie will be transferred to a new department when his training is done. Well, I hope that will not happen, if that so I will have to bargain on my work loads. Previously I also given up some other tasks to co-employee. Kuya Wowie’s tasks were big and with a very wide range. He handles the whole Preventive Maintenance System of our Department, handles the equipment conversion kit, transfers, incoming equipment, scrapping, housekeeping, dummy units, tools and etc. I used to cover up to him when he is on-leave and the maximum of two weeks when he had his training in Germany. This maybe the reason why my boss trusts me with these, it is still not yet final. I am still wishing for the best – maybe a help from my other co-engineers will do.

Analog Bowling Tournament

November 19, this is the day of the invitational bowling tournament for Analog Employees. It was held at Metropolis Alabang at 6:45 pm. It was my husband’s off, while I still have to work until 4:45. After work I rode the shuttle bus that is bound to Imus and my husband will just pick me up.

A total of fourteen lanes were occupied by the Analog employees, with 4 players per lane. The remaining lanes were occupied by a company which is also having their tournament.

There were awards given for the high scoring for men and women. My first game is not that good, I only scored 87, my second game, I was lucky to have two strikes on the second game but was not able to do all the spares (I am not good in spares) and I scored 114. My third game; has also two strikes and I scored 95, but again was not able to do the spares. After three games, they announced the top 5 for women and men. My husband was in a different lane that time, so I was not able to get his scores, but he is a lot better than me in bowling. Expectedly I was not in the top 5 for women, but my husband was able to grab the rank five for men.

The program ended almost 10:00 pm. With Aries and Gen we decided to have a quick snack Hot Shots were they served grilled burgers. It is already past 11:00 pm when we arrived at the Malagasang Imus and we saw that there were no more jeepneys, so my husband told Gen and Aries that we are going to drop them off to their boarding house.

My Husband’s Honesty Award

November 14, 2007, our company held the quarterly Honesty award in our cafeteria to acknowledge employees who have shown honesty in their own little way. My husband Jelmar is one of the awardees. Actually it is his second time receiving this kind of recognition. The first time was last year, when he returned a cellular phone owned by co-employee and this time he found a necklace while he is walking in the production aisle.

Performance Review

November is the month of performance review. I was on the office area and was looking for the in charge in mechanical fabrication, when my supervisor asked me if he can discuss to me the performance review. I told him that I was about to see mechanical group for I have some machine parts for fabrication, but it will not take long, because I already discussed it with them.

After giving the part to the mechanical group, I went to my supervisor’s table which is a few cubicles away. We then go to a vacant room to discuss my performance. He handed me the report and on the front page, I saw my rating. Well, to be honest I was a little surprise for the rating, it is a little bit high than what I am expecting. The report has a total of 6 pages, the next pages shows the detailed part of the rating, including comments regarding how he came up with the rating. The last page contains the next goal for me and my supervisor’s plan. Being an associate equipment engineer, I am currently paired with an equipment engineer, whom is giving me guidance in my new job function. He told me that in the coming months or years, I will be ready to stand on my own. I am having second thoughts about it; especially I was not used to handling people. I used to be a follower and a leader, but not an administrator type. He told me that he will give me training for both personal and technical development that might be helpful to me.

Overall, I was satisfied about my performance rating.

Search for new puzzle project

Saturday afternoon, as planned we went to Alabang town center to look for my new puzzle project. One of my puzzles was bought in the Hobbes and Landes (Alabang Town Center), the other four puzzles were bought at Puzzle Dazzle (Festival Mall Alabang). Well, I am looking for a puzzle of Van Gogh (Souvenir de Mauve), but unfortunately they do not have the puzzle that time. The store clerk handed me a business card so that I can call him to inquire if they already have the puzzle. My husband told me to buy other instead, so that I can do something while waiting for the puzzle that I want. So I took my tine to check on their puzzle display, I carefully look into each of the boxes (particularly for the size of the puzzle). There is one puzzle that caught my eyes; it is a panorama view of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. Well, it is not for me this time, I told my husband that I will give this puzzle for a friend as my gift. I hope that she will like it.

Afterwards we headed to the kids section of the mall to buy the Christmas Gifts for our “inaanaks”. I already had a checklist of the kids that we still have no gifts yet. I decided to do it on my own, while Adrian is busy playing at the small playground inside the mall, and Claire is closely watching him. My husband chose to sit on the bench nearby (he is not the type that will walk from stall to stall). When I found good buy items in their stall I will call my husband to have a second opinion.

Finally we are almost done with the gifts, only three of my nieces were left with no gift this time. We decided to have a snack at Hot Shots where they served delicious grilled burgers. No pizza this time for Adrian, he loves fries, but not crazy on burgers.